Hair and lint cleaning tool

ABSTRACT

A flexible and conformable cleaning tool is disclosed that includes a foam body with a first working surface, wherein the foam body has a shore hardness less than 40. The cleaning tool further comprises a cleaning material on at least a portion of the first working surface, wherein the cleaning material includes an array of 20 to 1000 upstanding stems per square centimeter, wherein each stem has a height from 0.2 and 2.0 millimeters and a shore hardness less than 105 A, wherein the cleaning material is wiped over a surface to be cleaned to gather debris, lint, or hair.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/148,738, filed Jan. 30, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a flexible and conformable foam cleaning tool with a plurality of upstanding stems for gathering or removing debris, lint, or hair from a variety of surfaces.

BACKGROUND

Adhesive or other tacky lint removal devices, such as lint rollers, or directional felted fabric, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,622 can be used to remove lint and debris, such as particles, dirt, or hair from a surface. Hair embedded into fabric surfaces presents a particular challenge to remove as the hair is often entangled into the fabric surface.

For adhesive lint removal devices, the adhesive may not be strong enough to capture strongly embedded hair. Also, even if the adhesive sheet can retain the hair, often the adhesive sheet becomes loaded with debris so quickly that it becomes inefficient to clean a large area or an area having heavy debris cover. For directional felted fabric, the fabric is only useful at removing debris, lint, or hair by use in one direction. Further, once the fabric becomes loaded with debris, the user must remove the debris to continue use as these types of materials are typically not disposable.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to a flexible and conformable foam cleaning tool with a cleaning material comprising of a plurality of upstanding stems for gathering or removing debris, lint, or hair from a variety of surfaces. The cleaning material comprised of a plurality of upstanding stems is wiped over a surface to remove embedded lint or hair. When the cleaning tool to which the cleaning material is secured is a flexible and conformable foam, the cleaning tool is able to flex, compress, and generally conform the surface being cleaned. Therefore, nearly constant contact between the cleaning material and the surface being cleaned is achieved to maximize the amount of lint and hair gathered and retained in the stems. To achieve this, a relatively soft foam is needed for the cleaning tool.

In one embodiment, the cleaning tool comprises a foam body with a first working surface, wherein the foam body has a shore hardness less than 40. The cleaning tool further comprises a cleaning material on at least a portion of the first working surface, wherein the cleaning material includes an array of 20 to 1000 upstanding stems per square centimeter, wherein each stem has a height from 0.2 and 2.0 millimeters and a shore hardness less than 105 A, wherein the cleaning material is wiped over a surface to be cleaned to gather debris, lint, or hair.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a cleaning tool;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the cleaning tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the cleaning tool of FIG. 1 in use;

FIG. 4 is a side view of another embodiment of a cleaning tool;

FIG. 5 is a side view of an embodiment of a cleaning tool;

FIG. 6 is a side view of an embodiment of a cleaning material.

While the above-identified drawings and figures set forth embodiments of the invention, other embodiments are also contemplated, as noted in the discussion. In all cases, this disclosure presents the invention by way of representation and not limitation. It should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art, which fall within the scope and spirit of this invention. The figures may not be drawn to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a cleaning tool that comprises a cleaning material 100 on a foam body 200. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the cleaning material 100 removed from the foam body 200. FIG. 3 is a side view of the cleaning material 100 and cleaning tool 200 of FIG. 1.

The foam body 200 is a solid foam material having a Shore OO hardness of less than 40. In another embodiment, the foam body 200 has a Shore OO hardness of less than 30. Therefore, the foam body 200 is relatively soft, flexible, conformable, and deformable.

Typically, the foam body 200 has a thickness of at least 0.635 cm. In another embodiment, the foam body 200 has a thickness of at least 1.27 cm. In a preferred embodiment, the foam body 100 has a thickness of at least 2.54 cm.

The surface(s) of the foam body 200 that include the cleaning material 100 form a working surface. In this embodiment, the cleaning material 100 covers only a single surface, and covers essentially that entire surface. In other embodiment, the cleaning material 100 may cover only a portion of a surface or may cover more than one surface, as will be discussed in more detail with respect to FIGS. 4 and 5.

It is understood that the foam body 200 can be any number of various shapes, including sides that are square, triangle, oval, circular, or irregular. The surfaces of the foam body 200, all or individually, could be planar or curved, concavely or convexly. The surfaces, all or individually, may includes peaks, ridges, recesses that are in a regular pattern or irregular shape.

In this embodiment, a first recessed groove 220 and second recessed groove 222 are included at the sides of the foam body 100. The recessed grooves 220, 222 provide channels for a user's fingers to rest in while gripping and holding the foam body 200.

Suitable materials for use as the foam body include natural or synthetic foamed materials maintaining the above hardness properties. Specific exemplary materials include polyether or polyester, low or high density, small, large or twin pore sizes, closed or open cell, non-flammatory or flame retardant, melamine or post treated impregnated foams, and the like. Also, neoprene, natural rubber, SBR, butyl, butadiene, nitrile, EPDM, ECH, polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyurethane, EVA, EMA, metallocene resin, polyurethane, PVC, blends of any of the above, and the like are also suitable materials. Cellulose-based sponges can be used. However, the cellulose sponges are more rigid when dry so to have a compressible and conformable cellulose sponge, the sponge should be wet.

The cleaning tool includes a cleaning material 100. The cleaning material 100 is an array of upstanding stems 110 projecting from a backing 120, known as a stem web. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,372,323; 6,610,382; and 6,904,615, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference, disclose a stem web and method of making a stem web that is suitable as cleaning material 100. Unlike directional fabric, a stem web can be wiped across a surface in any direction and gather and capture debris, lint, or hair.

The cleaning material 100 may be removable from or permanently secured to one or more of the working surfaces of the foam body 200. Regardless, during use of the cleaning tool a wiping motion causes frictional forces between the cleaning material 100 and the surface to be cleaned. The attachment mechanism between the cleaning material 100 and the foam body 200 should form a secure connection so that the cleaning material 100 does not slip or remove from the working surface of the foam body 200. The cleaning material is secured to the working surface such that the cleaning material is securely placed under tension in the direction of intended wiping. Because a cleaning material 100 comprising an array of stems provides the benefit multidirectional use, the attachment mechanism should provide the same. Therefore, in one embodiment, the entire area of contact between the cleaning material and the working surface includes an attachment mechanism.

The foam body 200 includes an attachment surface 230 and the cleaning material 100 includes an attachment surface 130 that meet to secure the cleaning material 100 to the foam body 200. In one embodiment, adhesive may be included on one or both of the attachment surfaces 130, 230 for either a permanent or removable attachment of the cleaning material 100 to the foam body 200. In another embodiment, hook and loop or hook and hook attachment may be used to removably secure the cleaning material 100 to the foam body 200. As shown in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the cleaning material 100 includes a loop material on the attachment surface 130 that secures with hooks projecting from attachment surface 230 of the foam body 200. A knitted or nonwoven material may be used as a loop for connection to hooks on the cleaning tool.

FIG. 6 shows a side-sectional view of one embodiment of a stem web 20 suitable as a cleaning material 100. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the stem web 20 includes a backing layer 21 having a first surface 24 with an array of generally upstanding stems 26. The stems may be arranged in a regular or an irregular array. Various patterns of stems may be used, such as hexagonal, diagonal, sinusoidal, etc. The stems 26 are constructed at least in part of an elastomeric material. Preferably, the entire exterior surface of the stems 26 are an elastomeric material. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the backing layer 21 is integrally formed with the stems 26 of an elastomeric material. Although the illustrated embodiment shows the stems 26 as being generally cylindrical, the sides of the stems 26 typically have a slight taper 35 to facilitate removal from the mold during formation. As shown in FIG. 6, the taper 35 is inward from the base to the tip of the stem. It is understood, that the stem may be constructed having a taper outward from the base to the tip of the stem. A variety of non-cylindrical shapes can also be utilized, such as truncated cones or pyramids, rectangles, hemispheres, squares, hexagon, octagon, gum drops, and the like.

A stem, for purposes of this disclosure, is distinguished from a hook. A stem is a protrusion that projects from a surface but does not form an interlocking fastening system like a hook may with a mating surface. Hooks generally have an overhang, or other portion that projects laterally from the main body of the hook to create the interlocking fastening system. A stem, alternatively, typically does not have a portion that projects laterally from the main body of the stem. As can be seen in the embodiment in FIG. 6, the stem 26 does not include a portion that projects laterally and instead has a linear side (as indicated by L as a line extending generally from the backing toward the tip of the stem).

Stems that are generally upstanding tend to optimize the performance of the cleaning material 100. The stems are kept upstanding by the stem diameter and the nature of the elastomeric material. As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the upstanding stems angle relative to the backing is 90 degrees. However, an upstanding stems may be angled from 40 to 90 degrees relative to the backing Additionally, the stems may be multi-angled such that different stems can angle in different directions. The stems typically have a height 28 in the range of about 0.2 mm to about 3 mm, preferably about 0.5 mm to about 1.5 mm. The separation or gap 30 between adjacent stems 26 is generally in the range of about 0.25 mm and about 2.5 mm and more typically in the range of about 0.4 mm to about 1.0 mm. This separation gap creates a percent of free volume that is volume within the stem web that is not occupied by the stems. The percent of free volume is typically from 60 to 98% of the stem web and more typically from 85 to 95%. The larger the free volume, the larger volume is available for loading with debris, lint or hair. The stems 26 have a maximum cross sectional dimension 29 of about 0.076 mm to about 0.76 mm. The stems 26 are arranged on the backing in a density of at least 20 per square centimeter, and more typically at least 50 per centimeter squared. The stem density is generally at most about 1000 per centimeter squared, more typically at most about 500 per centimeter squared.

The stems have an aspect ratio of at least 1.25, and preferably at least 1.5, and most preferably at least 2.0. Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of stem height to the maximum cross sectional dimension. For stems with a circular cross section, the maximum cross sectional dimension is the stem diameter. When the stems or pins are formed from an elastomeric material, the relatively small stem diameter enhances the soft nature of the stem web surface to the touch.

Secured to the backing 21 may be an optional layer 22 that may serve as a reinforcing layer or attachment layer. The layer 22 may impart increased tear resistance or tensile strength to the stem web. The layer 22 may serve as an attachment mechanism.

Suitable materials for the stem web include elastomers. The elastomer should have a Shore Hardness less than 105 A. In one embodiment, the elastomer has a Shore Hardness less than 85 A. Suitable materials include thermoplastic polyurethanes, polyvinyl chlorides, polyamides, polyimides, polyolefins (e.g., polyethylene and polypropylene), polyesters (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate), polystyrenes, nylons, acetals, block polymers (e.g., polystyrene materials with elastomeric segments, available from KRATON Polymers Company of Houston, Tex., under the designation KRATON™, polycarbonates, thermoplastic elastomers (e.g., polyolefin, polyester or nylon types) and copolymers and blends thereof. The thermoplastic material may also contain additives, including but not limited to fillers, fibers, antistatic agents, lubricants, wetting agents, foaming agents, surfactants, pigments, dyes, coupling agents, plasticizers, suspending agents, hydrophilic/hydrophobic additives, adhesives and tacky polymers, and the like.

The stems of the stem web provide a particularly desirable cleaning material because the stems project onto the surface to be cleaned to gather, capture, or collect debris, lint or hair from a surface. The free volume of the stem web provides open space for the debris, line or hair to become trapped in and held by the stem web. With a free volume from 60 to 98% of the stem web, a signification portion of the stem web is available for loading of the debris, lint or hair. The stem web provides a soft feel and conformable cleaning material that results in minimal damage when wiped repeatedly over a variety of surfaces, such as fabric and upholstery. Therefore, the stem can be repeatedly used to clean such things as clothing, furniture, carpeting to remove debris, lint or hair without excessive wear. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/833,846 titled “Stem Web,” filed on Aug. 3, 2007, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, discloses a stem web for use as the cleaning material. Further, because the stem web is not a hook, less damage to the fabric or upholstery occurs with repeated use.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of the foam body 200 and cleaning material 100 in use over a surface to be cleaned 300. The foam body 200 is held, usually by a hand (not shown for simplicity of viewing) or could be attached to a tool and the cleaning material 100 attached to foam body 200. The foam body 200 and attached cleaning material 100 is wiped over the surface to be cleaned 300. The wiping motion resulting in frictional contact between the surface being cleaned 300 and the cleaning material 100 is what engages the individual stems of the cleaning material 100 with the loose hair, lint, or debris on the surface being cleaned 300. The loose hair, lint, and debris becomes tangled and trapped in the array of stems.

To maximize the cleaning capacity of the cleaning material 100 constant and continual contact between the cleaning material 100 and the surface being cleaned 300 will result in maximum loading of the cleaning material. The soft foam body 200 for supporting the cleaning material will contour and conform even with small amounts of force applied to allow the attached cleaning material 100 to contour and conform to the surface being cleaned 300. This is particularly ideal when the surface being cleaned is nonplanar and includes ridges, bumps, or sloping surface, such as found on chairs, couches, seats, or other pieces of furniture.

In addition, a soft foam body 200 that supports the cleaning material 100 will compress at the leading edge 224. A contact area 226 is created between the cleaning material 100 and the surface being cleaned 300. For a softer, more compressible foam, the contact area 226 will be larger than the contact area created for a harder and less compressible foam. The wiping force applied by the user is spread over the contact area 226. It has been found that on harder and less compressible foams the forces applied will tend to be on such a small contact area 226 that the cleaning material 100 may pull away and release from the foam body 200. Using a softer, more compressible foam minimizes the problem of the cleaning material 100 releasing from the foam body 200 during use.

As discussed above, the cleaning material 100 may be permanently secured to the foam body 200. Therefore, after using the cleaning material 100 to clean a surface, the entire foam body 200 and cleaning material 100 are discarded. Alternatively, the cleaning material 100 may be removable from the foam body 200. Therefore, after using the cleaning material 100, the cleaning material 100 is removed from the foam body and discarded. In either embodiment, it may be possible to clean the cleaning material 100 after a use to extend the useful life of the cleaning material 100.

FIG. 4 is a side view of another embodiment of a cleaning material 100 over a foam body 200. In FIG. 1, only the first working surface 201 included the cleaning material 100. However, in this embodiment, the cleaning material 100 is in a sheet form an wraps to cover a first working surface 201, second working surface 202, and third working surface 203 of the foam body 200. As discussed above, the cleaning material 100 could be permanently or removably secured to the foam body 200. Similar attachment mechanisms could be included as discussed above. The attachment mechanisms could be located at each of the working surfaces or only at the first and third working surface 201, 203.

The entire working surface may be covered with a single array of stems, such as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 where the working surface is shown as being covered with stems. However, the different size stems may be included with the cleaning tool, such as is disclosed in U.S. provisional patent Application 61/116,952, filed on Nov. 21, 2008, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. A first size stem 110 is located on the first working surface 201 and a second size stem 112 on a third working surface 203. It is understood that separate sheets may be used to provide the first size stem 110 and the second size stem 112. It may be desirable to include two or more sizes of stems. The larger size stem could function to loosen embedded lint or hair, followed by the smaller size to gather and capture the lint and hair.

FIG. 5 is a side view of another embodiment of a cleaning material 100 over a foam body 200. This embodiment is similar to the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, however in this embodiment, the cleaning material 100 is in a sheet form and tightly wraps over a first working surface 201, second working surface 202, and third working surface 203 to compress the foam body and create a tapered region 240. A tapered region 240 provides a particularly advantageous combination of surfaces for supporting the cleaning material 100. The tapered region 240 creates a narrowed portion or point having a cleaning material 100 in opposed direction available for cleaning. The tapered region 240 provides a particularly desirable feature for gathering or capturing debris, lint, or hair in the crease of a chair, sofa, or the like, in the area where the back meets the seat. A foam that is soft and compressible is most suitable for being compressed by a cleaning material 100 tightly applied to the foam body 200.

Although specific embodiments of this invention have been shown and described herein, it is understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the many possible specific arrangements that can be devised in application of the principles of the invention. Numerous and varied other arrangements can be devised in accordance with these principles by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the structures described in this application, but only by the structures described by the language of the claims and the equivalents of those structures. 

1. A cleaning tool comprising: a foam body with a first working surface, wherein the foam body has a shore hardness less than 40; a cleaning material on at least a portion of the first working surface, wherein the cleaning material includes an array of 20 to 1000 upstanding stems per square centimeter, wherein each stem has a height from 0.2 and 2.0 millimeters and a shore hardness less than 105 A, wherein the cleaning material is wiped over a surface to be cleaned to gather debris, lint, or hair.
 2. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the foam body has a shore 00 hardness of less than 30
 3. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the foam body has a thickness of at least 1.27 cm.
 4. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the foam body has a thickness of at least 2.54 cm.
 5. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the foam body further comprises a second surface, adjacent to the first surface, and a third surface, opposite the first surface.
 6. The cleaning tool of claim 5, wherein the cleaning material is on the first working surface and second working surface.
 7. The cleaning tool of claim 5, wherein the cleaning material is on the first working surface and third working surface.
 8. The cleaning tool of claim 5, wherein the cleaning material is a sheet including the plurality of upstanding stems wherein the sheet extends from the first working surface to the third working surface.
 9. The cleaning tool of claim 8, wherein the second working surface of the foam body is compressed to extend the sheet of cleaning material from the first working surface to the third working surface.
 10. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the cleaning material covers the entire first working surface.
 11. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the cleaning material is releasably attached to the first working surface of the foam body.
 12. The cleaning tool of claim 11, wherein the working surface includes a plurality of hooks and wherein the cleaning material includes loop material, opposite the plurality of upstanding stems.
 13. The cleaning tool of claim 1, wherein the foam body includes a first and second recessed grooves. 